Potential for producing and marketing gasoline substitutes from western coal
Through June, 1978, one major emphasis of the program is a regional coal assessment for input to the ERDA National Coal Assessment (NCA). The NCA will utilize information on regional energy options to (1) generate development scenarios and to (2) evaluate regional impacts associated with these scenarios. One problem that the NCA must face is determining the likelihood of a particular development occurring within the region. Before embarking on a large-scale program to assess the socio-economic, environmental, and health effects of placing several coal liquefaction plants in the western United States, it was essential to have some indication of ''if'' and ''when'' state-of-the-art and future technologies might be utilized. A multisector model with regional detail would be required to thoroughly assess the likelihood of commercial-scale liquefaction occurring in Montana and Wyoming under market conditions. However, significant information can be obtained from a constrained partial analysis, which was the procedure for this study. Some fundamental terminology used in this analysis is reviewed in Section 2 of this report. Future demand and potential supply of gasoline from domestic crude oil are treated in Sections 3 and 4. The costs of supplying synthetic gasoline and methanol from western coal as well as the qualitative aspects of these fuels are examined in Section 5. In Section 6 the supply and demand functions are solved simultaneously under various import schemes to trace out a family of gasoline-market equilibrium price curves over time. Three scenarios are then analyzed by comparing the costs of supplying synthetic fuels with the market equilibrium prices for gasoline. Market potential for the synthetic fuels is estimated for a wide range of coal prices. Section 7 includes a summary, concluding comments, and research recommendations. (MCW)
Year of publication: |
2008-11-20
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Authors: | Currie, J.W. ; Braun, D.J. |
Subject: | energy planning, policy and economy | coal, lignite, and peat | COAL LIQUEFACTION PLANTS | REGIONAL ANALYSIS | SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS | ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS | GASOLINE | PRODUCTION | METHANOL | MARKET | MONTANA | SYNTHETIC FUELS | WYOMING | COAL INDUSTRY | COMMUNITIES | COST | DEMAND FACTORS | ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS | HEALTH HAZARDS | RECOMMENDATIONS | USA | ALCOHOLS | FUELS | HAZARDS | HYDROXY COMPOUNDS | INDUSTRIAL PLANTS | INDUSTRY | NORTH AMERICA | ORGANIC COMPOUNDS | PETROLEUM PRODUCTS | ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION |
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